Britney Spears will continue paying child support to her ex, Kevin Federline, for their youngest son, Jayden James, even though he turned 18 on Thursday.
Sources told TMZ that the Womanizer singer and the former backup dancer agreed in their divorce settlement that her child support payments for Jayden would cease either when he turned 18 or when he graduated from high school — whichever comes later.
Although Jayden turned 18 on Thursday, he is still enrolled in high school. The outlet reported that the teen is set to graduate early from high school in Hawaii in November, so the payments will continue until then.
According to TMZ, Spears — who also shares son Sean Preston, 18, with Federline — was originally supposed to pay her ex $20,000 a month in child support. However, in 2018, the amount was increased to $40,000 a month because the teens were primarily in the care of the You Got Served dancer, 46.
Last month, the pop star, 42, decided to reduce the payments back to $20,000. Spears’ fans celebrated this change on social media by streaming her 2013 single Work Bitch.
Spears has had a tumultuous relationship with her sons over the years. In 2022, Jayden publicly criticised his mother’s parenting skills. “I think Mom has struggled with giving us both attention and showing us equal love; I don’t think she showed enough to Preston, and I feel really bad for that,” he told the Daily Mail at the time.
Federline claimed his sons were troubled by Spears flaunting her naked body online. “I try to explain to them, ‘Look, maybe that’s just another way she tries to express herself.’ But that doesn’t take away from the fact of what it does to them,” he told the Daily Mail. “It’s tough. I can’t imagine how it feels to be a teenager having to go to high school.”
In May 2023, it was reported that the Crossroads actress hadn’t seen Preston and Jayden in over a year, and the boys had stopped answering her texts. Despite the strained relationship, things seemed to be improving. In June, Federline’s longtime attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, confirmed to Page Six that Preston and Jayden had spoken with the Sometimes singer for Mother’s Day, calling it a “step in the right direction.” The lawyer noted, however, “It’s a process that takes more than just a phone call to accomplish.”
